Karl Marx

Karl Marx, in full Karl Heinrich Marx (born May 5, 1818, Trier, Rhine province, Prussia [Germany]—died March 14, 1883, London, England) revolutionary, sociologist, historian, and economist. He published (with Friedrich Engels) Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei (1848), commonly known as The Communist Manifesto, the most celebrated pamphlet in the history of the socialist movement. He also was the author of the movement’s most important book, Das Kapital. These writings and others by Marx and Engels form the basis of the body of thought and belief known as Marxism. (See alsosocialism; communism.)

Karl Marx.

Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co. Ltd.